In 1924, he brought all these credentials with him to RCA Victor and became the director of light music. He directed and arranged nearly all the Jazz Age greats and founded the Victor Salon Orchestra, which was his own project for delivering the sounds of the Jazz Age. Like Paul Whiteman, he had the power of RCA's backing to get the finest musicians for his magnificent studio sessions. Songs like "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" and "It's A Million To One You're In Love", and over 50 others soared up the charts from 1924 to 1932. This does not even include all the hit songs where the Victor Orchestra backs up Jazz Age singers, like Gene Austin, who was an all-star hit maker in the 1920s.
Shilkret also did classical direction for Victor and conducted on various recordings. His conducting however, received poor reviews from the classical music critics, unlike his successes with the popular tunes.
It was inevitable that Shilkret should lock horns in the late 1920s with Paul Whiteman, who had also recorded with Victor for years. Whiteman was not a fan of the Victor Orchestra, because Shilkret was recording a lot of the same songs as Whiteman's boys, often upstaging the "King of Jazz" with a better cut. Whiteman refused to renew his contract with Victor and signed with Columbia. Columbia, to say the least, was so overjoyed to have Whiteman aboard, that they created a custom label with Whiteman's famous caricature on it. The loss of Whiteman was indeed more than just a scrape on the knee to Victor's executives, with Shilkret partly to blame. Shilkret remained as music director with RCA Victor for only a couple more years, before turning his attention to radio. He did not burn his bridges with his friends at Victor, as Whiteman had however.
During the 1930s, Shilkret worked many radio shows, such as the Eveready show, in which he conducted many generic radio bands. He had done some scoring for films in New York, composing and music directing at several studios [D. W. Griffith's THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES (1928 at United Artists), Harry A. Pollard's SHOW BOAT (1929 at Universal), at Hal Roach on THE LAUREL AND HARDY MURDER CASE (1930) and THE BOHEMIAN GIRL (1936)] In 1935, he moved to Hollywood and found work as music director, doing incidental, as well as some main music for the movies. All the while still doing shows on radio and by the late thirties he had racked up thousands of broadcasts. He became the head of the RKO Radio studio music department for two years in 1936. Some of his RKO scoring credits include THAT GIRL FROM PARIS (1936), THE SOLDIER AND THE LADY, MUSIC FOR MADAME and TOAST OF NEW YORK (all 1937) and LAW OF THE UNDERWORLD and THIS MARRIAGE BUSINESS (both 1938). Musical director credits at RKO include SWING TIME, WALKING ON AIR, THE BIG GAME, THE SMARTEST GIRL IN TOWN, WINTERSET, THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS and THAT GIRL FROM PARIS (all 1936), THE SOLDIER AND THE LADY, SHALL WE DANCE and BORDER CAFE (all 1937) and BOY MEETS DOG (1938).
Shilkret then went on to work at Paramount (ONE THIRD OF A NATION, 1939), Columbia (YANKEE DOODLE HOME, 1939) and MGM, where he worked primarily on short subjects for most of the rest of his career. Some of his MGM scoring credits include A PLAN FOR DESTRUCTION, HITLER'S MADMAN, THAT'S WHY I LEFT YOU, DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT, TRIFLES THAT WIN WARS, STORM, TO MY UNBORN SON, ODE TO VICTORY and CALLING ALL KIDS (all 1943), PATROLLING THE ETHER, RETURN FROM NOWHERE, LOST IN A HAREM, A LADY FIGHTS BACK, BLONDE FEVER, NOTHING BUT TROUBLE, THREE MEN IN WHITE and NOSTRADAMUS IV (all 1944), THIS MAN'S NAVY and SHE WENT TO THE RACES (1945), THE HOODLUM SAINT, BOYS' RANCH, FAITHFUL IN MY FASHION and COURAGE OF LASSIE (all 1946). His last score was, oddly enough, back at RKO for a documentary short, FLYING PADRE (1951), by a young filmmaker named Stanley Kubrick.
Shilkret's brother was bandleader Jack Shilkret (1896-1964).
Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Score) 1936: WINTERSET - as head of RKO Radio studio music dept. and for the Score
1 nomination